Offensive post against SC/ST caste can be punishable

New Delhi: As per the information given by the Delhi High Court, any insulting post on social networking sites against the Schedule Caste/ Schedule Tribe is punishable and can result in imprisonment.

The high court clarifies the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 will apply if a casteist abuse is made against a person belonging to these communities.

The ruling, though came in reference to a Facebook post, is extended to other social media platform as well, like WhatsApp and other which have closed private settings.

Justice Vipin went on to say: “When a member registered with Facebook changes the privacy settings to ‘public’ from ‘private’, it makes his/her writings on the ‘wall’ accessible not only to the other members who are befriended by the author of the writings on the “wall”, but also by any other member registered with Facebook. However, even if privacy settings are retained by a Facebook member as “private”, making of an offending post by the member – which falls foul of Section under Section 3(1)(x) of the SC/ST Act—may still be punishable.”